Milo #3
“I will leave waging war with Marty between her and you kids,” he said fondly. “I rather like her being happy with me. And happy in general.”
I gave him a sour expression before turning back to my drink.
He was trying to prevent me from bringing up an old and sore subject, the source of a few bitter arguments between my mother and me.
Everyone in the family knew she’d ended up pregnant with me between the death of her late husband, father to Moira and Mason, and meeting Marcus.
The story was that he had been a one-night stand during a period of grief-fueled partying, and that she knew very little about him.
Except there were times when I suspected she knew more than she was letting on.
Mostly, because even when I was younger and asked about him, she had evaded the questions with an odd gleam in her eye that told me she was hiding something.
It was also how defensive she got when the subject was pushed.
I thought I had a right to know where I’d come from, but my mom was clearly of the mind that I should just be happy with what I have and not probe into the past.
It had been the source of many arguments in my teenage years.
They’d died out as I’d gotten older, but if the tension in her shoulders was any indication, she was obviously waiting for another round to come up one day.
I still wanted answers, but I had had enough bickering with my mother for one day.
I’d push for more another time. Mostly because I didn’t even know the guy’s name, and she hadn’t written down a father, so I had nowhere to start searching.
I had tried when I hit adulthood and had the money to do some digging.
“Alright,” I said with a grunt, pushing away from the bar. “I suppose I should head out and get home. Maybe I can get in a quick nap myself.”
“Since when do you nap?” my mom asked, blinking. “I could never get you to nap. You didn’t even sleep, you just passed out like a little drunk on a bender.”
I snorted. “Fun fact, I still fight sleep. And you’re right, I’m not going to nap. I’m going to see if Eli’s awake and probably drop in front of my computer.”
“If you game like you used to, Eli isn’t going to be sleeping long,” she said with a shake of her head. “Never understood how someone can say they’re having fun when they sound like they’re having anything but fun.”
“Look, it’s not my fault that people don’t know how to play the game, and I’m stuck carrying their asses.”
“I’m thinking of when you played games that didn’t involve other people.”
“Well, that player was an idiot too.”
I set my glass at the back of the bar so Roland could grab it and slid a five next to it.
Just because the family got drinks for free didn’t mean the man didn’t deserve a tip, paid extremely well by the hotel or not.
I leaned over, hugged Marcus, and gave a peck on the cheek to my mom. “You two kids behave.”
“How is he going to tell us to behave?” my mother asked with a snort.
“Probably because he knows what his mother is like,” Marcus answered, and I rolled my eyes when I heard her giving him another swat.
I left the bar to cross the lobby, smiling when I saw Moira bent over the front desk, talking to the woman working there.
She saw me, then narrowed her brow, which told me she had something on her mind, which, considering the way her eyes lingered on my cast a little too long, I had a good idea what it was.
Shaking my head, I made the sign of the cross because no, thank you, I did not need another lecture today.
She scowled, and I grinned, picking up my pace when it looked like she might come after me.
The problem was that she could move quickly even in heels, and I wasn’t near enough to the door to get away if she was determined, unless I was willing to break into a full sprint.
Which I absolutely was, dignity be damned.
Thankfully, a couple of loud voices broke through the noise.
Elation shot through me as Jace and Mason came through the main doors, and from the sounds of it, Mason was irritating the living crap out of Jace.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Moira come around the corner of the desk and stop with an exasperated look as they got closer to me.
“I’m just saying, not everything needs your stupid attempts at humor,” Jace growled, glaring daggers at Mason.
“And I’m saying that having a sense of humor once in a while wouldn’t actually kill you,” Mason said, winking at me when he spotted me. “Isn’t that right?”
“Leave me out of your foreplay, thank you very much,” I told him with a shake of my head.
Jace came to a stop, staring at me. “What did you say?”
Jace was a big guy. I was pretty tall, which meant that having a few inches was significant, but the man was built like he had a bear somewhere in his ancestral line.
He’d been a cop for years, and I couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of terror he instilled in the people he’d busted.
The thing was, I had seen the way he had hearts in his eyes when he looked at Mason.
It was hard to be intimidated by a man who was clearly over the moon about one of the most frustrating people on the planet, so he wasn’t really going to unnerve me all that much.
I shrugged. “Maybe you want to pretend that this bickering you two do is anything but foreplay, but I’m not going to give in to your delusions.”
“What is wrong with this family?” Jace demanded, stomping off toward Moira, who looked as thrilled as he did.
“I don’t think he has enough time for the list of things wrong with all of us,” Mason said with a snort. “Heading out?”
“Yeah, going home,” I said, glancing at Jace. “Is this foreplay, or are you being an asshole?”
“Foreplay.”
“You guys are so weird. Why can’t you flirt like normal people?”
“Because it works for us. Probably not going to do great things for his blood pressure, but the sex is great.”
Anyone else in the family would have been disgusted to hear that from him, but I took it in stride.
Mason and I were the only family who weren’t squeamish about that sort of thing.
Mason was probably just...well, Mason, it was hard to faze him with most things, and so far the only people who could get under his skin were Moira and, as of the past year, Jace.
I was perfectly fine with the idea of my family being sexual creatures, not just my siblings or my parents.
It was hard for most people, but I had long since made peace with the fact that I was always going to be an oddball.
Then again, our family didn’t exactly produce people who weren’t weird as hell.
“You know I have to ask,” I began, glancing over at Moira and Jace, chatting quietly at the desk.
The lobby was practically empty since people were either in their rooms, at the bar, or out in the city.
I glanced back at Mason with a meaningful look and held my hands out, facing each other and starting to spread them.
Mason stared as I continued spreading them apart.
At first, I thought he didn’t understand what I was trying to get across.
Then he gave a little twitch of his nose when I was getting ready to stop, and my eyes widened, spreading them even further.
Then he gave a thoughtful expression and nodded, and I looked down at the gap between my palms and muttered.
“Jesus Christ and...?” He cocked his head and held up his hand to show a circle with his fingers and thumb, and my hands dropped to my side in a mixture of horror and.
..well, being downright impressed. “Good God, is a future relying on a colostomy bag really worth it? Because god damn I know you two aren’t gentle. ”
He grinned. “Oh, it’s definitely worth it.”
Jesus, that explained Moira’s comment to Eli the other day. Length was one thing, but girthy too? Sheesh.
“ What are you talking about in my lobby?” Moira called out in irritation.
“The aerodynamics of bees in flight,” I called back, and she gave me a dirty look, which she turned on Jace when he snorted.
“What?” he protested loudly. “That was funnier than anything Mason has said in the past week.”
“It’s so cute how hard he tries to deny that he likes me,” Mason chuckled. “So, what’d you do to your arm? One of those good ideas of yours with really shitty execution?”
“The plan was a good one with Eli’s help, but we forgot to account for what would happen at the end of the trick. Turns out that physics is a cruel and unforgiving mistress.”
“She tends to be. What did we learn?”
“Make sure my ideas have a plan for the ending.”
“Probably not the lesson Mom or Moira would want you to take from that, but you know what? I call that learning.”
I snorted. “Speaking of, I should probably get out of here before Moira comes over. She hasn’t had the chance to chew me out before you two came in and distracted her. I’m pretty sure she was getting ready to football tackle me in the middle of the lobby.”
“She probably will if she sees you trying to leave.”
“You could also be an amazing big brother by distracting her.”
“What do I get out of it?”
“Knowing you, you’ll find a way to irritate her and Jace at the same time, which is more than enough for you.”
“It’s cute how you think switching from appealing to my better nature to tempting me to torment them is going to work.”
“Is it working?”
“Not particularly.”
“Damn.”
Which meant if I wanted him to cooperate, I was going to have to find something else.
If I were anyone else, I’d try blackmail.
Lord knew siblings accrued enough blackmail material over the years.
The problem was that we were talking about Mason.
What could he have done or said over the years to make him guilty or ashamed enough to be effective blackmail material while not crossing a serious line?